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Celebration Saturday: NPM #8

April 8, 2017 by margaretsmn

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

I am writing in a hotel room in Mobile, Alabama. My husband and I are here for a wedding. Not one of ours, thank goodness. It’s strange to be just a visitor, someone without any responsibilities for this celebration. We just get to be here, be present to the love and happiness. Not to mention the weather is amazing. A perfect temperature with a bright blue sky.

This week I noticed the sky. On Friday while I opened car doors for children, I watched the sun rise and off to the side a wisp of cirrus clouds change color. At one time there was a small rainbow circle in the clouds.

Reading blog posts this morning, I found this one from Smack Dab in the Middle celebrating the power of simple sentence structure of Kate DiCamillo in my favorite of her books, The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane. Deborah Lytton writes, “Every word has an important role to play in spare prose. If it isn’t essential, then it doesn’t belong.”

I was thinking about how my husband and I are mere observers today. This little poem came to me:

We are here.
Insignificant bystanders
walking the empty streets.
The sky is open, a fragrant blue.
I reach for your hand.
You feel my touch.
We are here.
–Margaret Simon, poem-a-day #8

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry | Tagged , , | 8 Comments »

NPM #7: Cinquains for Color

April 7, 2017 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday is with Irene and Live your Poem

On Wednesday I presented to my students Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s “Writing the Rainbow” poetry project.  We were on the letter C for our poem-a-day writing, so we wrote crayon cinquains.  The cinquain syllable pattern is 2,4,6,8,2.

Amy suggested this video of Mr. Rogers’ visit to a crayon factory.  The kids loved it, especially when the crayons appear in the tray like magic.

 

I will share a few of our poems here, but you can go to our Kidblog to see more.

 

 

Erin’s orchid bouquet

Erin chose the crayon “orchid” and drew the picture above. I encouraged my students to use metaphor in their poems. Erin imagined that the orchid bouquet was a crown for a woodland princess.

Orchid
Blooming Flower
Wonderful Pristine Crown
Perfect For A Woodland Princess
Wondrous
by Erin, 5th grade

When Madison colored in her journal with the crayon “Cadet Blue”, she saw a sky before the rain. I love how the name of the crayon informed her metaphor.

Rainy
Cadet Blue Sky
Thunder Beating on Drums
Lightning Marching Through the Clouds
Pouring…
by Madison, 3rd grade

I randomly picked a crayon from the box of 24 crayons and got “blue bell.” Of course, at first I thought about Blue Bell Ice Cream. Then I did a Google image search and found bluebell flowers. I drew a picture in my journal using the blue crayon. When Lynzee saw my picture, she said “It’s a fairy skirt.” So I stole that and used it in my poem. This form is fun to work with because it makes you think harder to get the syllables right.

Bluebell
a fairy skirt
balancing on a branch
hang like church bells in the steeple
Ring! Ring!
by Margaret Simon

Go to Amy’s padlet to see more of this crayon color poetry craze.

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments »

NPM #6: Spiritual Journey Thursday

April 6, 2017 by margaretsmn

National Poetry Month 2017

Find the round up of Spiritual Journey posts at Violet’s blog. Click the image.

 

These flowers appeared under the porch at Solomon House.  Volunteers vining from another plant about 10 feet away on the other side of the sidewalk.  There’s a line in a play my students perform about growing up at The Shadows, “We grow a flower called, ‘ham ‘n eggs.”  This is it.  See the pink ham and the golden egg yolk.  This flower is also a fractal, growing blossoms that look like tiny bouquets.

Today for Spiritual Thursday, we are writing around the theme of new life, spring, and Easter. I’ve been thinking about how we carry the spirits of our ancestors with us.  Like it or not, their lives influence ours.  We can see this as a gift or a curse.  We must be gentle with these spirits.

 

Pink lantana
sneaks under the porch
snakes through the dark earth
carrying the burden of a mother’s pain.

This fractal flower
springs forth surprising
the toes of the hungry and the poor,
lighting a path like grandmother’s Easter bonnet.

Don’t pick her blossoms.
They will sprinkle like confetti.
Just hold your gaze on her sunshine
remembering from whence she came.

–Margaret Simon

 

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth | Tagged , , | 11 Comments »

NPM #5 Goldenrod

April 5, 2017 by margaretsmn

National Poetry Month 2017

Over at The Poem Farm, Amy is selecting a crayon from her box of Crayola Crayons to inspire a daily poem.  For our classroom poem-a-day, I chose to do color cinquains for the letter C.  Instructions include using the cinquain form of 2,4,6,8,2 syllable count as well as adding a metaphor and simile for the color chosen.

 

I decided to write one as a model.  I closed my eyes and picked out “Goldenrod.”  Of course I thought of the wildflower.  I drew in my journal alongside other words for goldenrod.  I did some research and discovered the medicinal properties of goldenrod.  There seems to be no end to my trail.  Metaphors were hard to make fit to the syllable count.  This work helps me relate to what I am asking my students to do.  Not as easy as it seems.

Golden
sea of sunshine
dusting fairy brushes
Throw some on your dinner salad
Aster

by Margaret Simon

Andrew knew he would be missing class today due to testing, so yesterday we wrote one together on the color dandelion.  Here’s a link to our poem.  Others will be added during the day on our Kidblog site. 

Amy’s collecting class poems on a padlet here.

 

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

NPM #4: Dry Bones

April 4, 2017 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

National Poetry Month 2017

For the month of April, I have committed to writing a poem each day. I am not following any stricter rule than that one. Others in the poetry blogging community are doing themed poems. You can see everything that’s going on at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

On Monday, my young student Jacob wrote an acrostic poem on the word faith. He was surprised by his own wisdom. I told him that I think there is a whirl of ideas in the universe and he was open for it.

Finding
An
Invitation
to
Hope

 

Thinking about Jacob’s inspiring poem and the ideas from the universe, I felt a pull to write a found poem from Bishop Jake’s blog post from Sunday. Jake Owensby is the Bishop of the Western Louisiana Episcopal Diocese. He writes beautifully at Looking for God in Messy Places about how to live a life of love and hope.  His post this week “Dry Bones and Living Flesh” inspired this poem.

Dry Bones

uprooted
nothing familiar
fleeing home
to stay alive
they leave behind
bones

Ezekiel had a vision
of those very dry bones.
The victors leave
the dead in an open grave,
a goldmine
of artifacts.

This was personal.
The baker’s daughter
he knew by her fragrance of yeast,
the grandmother rocking her grandchild,
the old stooped mason.

War is always the same.
Death, senseless, helpless
“collateral damage” No, this was personal-
husbands, wives, siblings, grandchildren.

Homes left in ruins,
People without community,
Dry bones
watered with survivor’s tears.

God takes these bones
clothes them
gives them breath.
God promises
through us
to be a new home
for the exiled.
Hear the call.

–Margaret Simon

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged , , | 10 Comments »

NPM #2 and #3: Dancing Clouds and Expectant Blossoms

April 3, 2017 by margaretsmn

This National Poetry Month button was created by my student Lani. If your students are writing a poem-a-day, you are welcome to use this button. My students are posting their poems here.

My Sunday poem came to me during the shower. Because I couldn’t write it down or record it, I kept saying it over and over, like a musical refrain. Then I wrote it on a sticky note. I was thinking about how the clouds seem to be dancers passing each other in the sky. Sometimes poems come whole, and all I have to do is write them down.

On Monday, after my morning walk, I noticed closed blossoms in the flower bed. Such a pleasant surprise. I know they will open up once the sun comes out, so I thought of the word expectant. Since it was our first day of ABCs of poetry in my class, we were writing acrostics today. I found a student interactive on Read, Write, Think.
My student Lynzee helped me write this poem. I wanted to use the word radiant, but it didn’t fit with the letters. We put radiant into the online thesaurus and found emanating.

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

DigiLitSunday: Why are We Doing This?

April 2, 2017 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Do your students ever ask, “Why are we doing this?” Friday we celebrated the completion of the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Kathleen from Two Writing Teachers shared a Google Slide Show in which she posed these questions to student bloggers:

I discussed these questions with each of my class groups. Sometimes I wonder if my students really understand why we do this. I can see the benefits daily. Each day, they try to do better, write more, and add more craft into their writing. But it’s more than that. They grow as human beings, too. They share a piece of who they are and who they are becoming.

Noah said, “I learned that when you write on the blog, you are showing other people who you are.”

Sometimes these are hard lessons. These kids are at an age where they are still figuring it all out. They try stuff. They write things that may not be true to who they are or want to be. This blog space becomes a safe place for them to express whatever is on their minds.

Erin said she has learned to be more open. Kaiden has expressed emotions through figurative language. And even Tobie said he learned he wasn’t so bad at poetry.

With all the balking about writing every day and even the multiple posts of things like Google tricks, writer’s block, and “Idontevenknowwhywearedoingthis” posts, my students grew as writers and as people making their way in the world. I am grateful to the Two Writing Teachers, especially Kathleen and Lanny who led the classroom challenge. Another year down and many lessons learned.

I am sharing Kaiden’s clever poem about writer’s block.

A vacuous screen

filled with a picture

of a polar bear

in a snowstorm.

Snow swirling,

chills sinking

into your skin

in this winter wonderland.

Place your links for DigiLitSunday below:

 

Posted in Blogging, Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Slice of Life | Tagged , | 3 Comments »

NPM #1: Lilies in a Vase Tanka

April 1, 2017 by margaretsmn

 

Searching for the muse this morning, I read Amy VanDerwater’s poem for today.  She is choosing crayons out of the Crayola box to inspire daily poetry.  Today’s crayon was carnation pink.  The color reminded me of the beautiful lilies that have opened up, post-wedding, filling up my kitchen with their strong scent.  I took out the carnation pink and colored a picture in my journal.

As I wrote about the flower, I played around with word forms, searching flowery terms like pollen, stamen, and anther.  Pollinic won as a new word choice.  I found that my lines were tending toward the haiku syllable count, so I chose to write a tanka which uses the 5,7,5,7,7 syllable count.

This poetry month I will attempt to write a poem-a-day.  I’ll write about my process.  The muse will come from other poets or from my own poetic heart.

Jama is gathering the Kidlit blogging events.

I’ll be joining Irene Latham’s Progressive Poem and have posted the schedule in the side bar.

Happy National Poetry Month!  Celebrate Poetry!

 

 

 

*The image is a photograph using my phone, enhanced by Painteresque.

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry | Tagged , , | 6 Comments »

SOL #31 Borrowed Words

March 31, 2017 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

Poetry Friday is with Amy at The Poem Farm

 

Today is the final day for the Slice of Life Challenge, and I have run out of words.  I took a tour of my Facebook feed to find some.  It was a good day for most.  I found happy, dreamy words and created a poem.  Thanks for taking this daily writing journey with me this month.  Now on to National Poetry Month and a Poem-a-Day.

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life | Tagged | 23 Comments »

SOL #30: Ode to a Thin Mint Cookie

March 30, 2017 by margaretsmn

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.

Every month, Michelle H. Barnes posts an interview with a poet.  Then a Ditty Challenge is given.  This month’s challenge comes from Helen Frost.

Choose an object (a seashell, a hairbrush, a bird nest, a rolling pin). It should not be anything symbolic (such as a doll, a wedding ring, or a flag). Write five lines about the object, using a different sense in each line (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). Then ask the object a question, listen for its answer, and write the question, the answer, or both.

I opened the freezer for a Thin Mint cookie, and thus an ode appeared.

Green-vested Girl Scouts
line boxes on a table outside Walgreens.
Crinkling wax paper opens
to a circle of mouth-watering chocolate.
Mint permeates my senses.
Why are you hiding in this box?
Come on out for my delight,
a refreshing bite.

–Margaret Simon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing | Tagged , , | 11 Comments »

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